


Tragedy's fear

by Idiot_without_a_life, NoctisAvem



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Blood, Blood and Gore, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Gore, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27858965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idiot_without_a_life/pseuds/Idiot_without_a_life, https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoctisAvem/pseuds/NoctisAvem
Summary: Murders are happening all around Ed at this town he stopped in. No one knows what's happening. But could they be Ed's fault? This is a story written by the readers in a way. If you want to write a chapter after reading then have fun! Comment on the story before writing so that I know you're writing. Almost anything can happen!More tags will be added as we go.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric
Comments: 19
Kudos: 4





	1. Mine

Ed's eyes glowed when they fell on the glorious, buttery, steaming rolls. They looked so good. He wanted to stuff his face with them. They just looked too good. He pointed to them through the glass. "Four of those, please." They looked like something you could eat all day.

The brown eyed, brown haired woman behind the counter scowled, folding her nicely tanned arms and shaking her head "We don't serve dogs in here. If you want something to eat find it elsewhere or wait for the scraps out back like the rest of those dirty strays, but I doubt there would be any for you."

Ed bit back a snarky remark in favour of meal. He frowned slightly and tried not to look very unhappy. He sighed and gave her his best sweet, innocent face. "Please, Ma'am, I've tried everywhere, but I can't get anything to eat. No one will let me buy anything. You seem like a kind woman. I'm just a kid, and I'm really hungry."

"Get out!" She shouted in annoyance. She glared at him. There was a fire blazing behind the deep, dark brown eyes.

Ed scowled but slipped back out, not wasting anymore time on her. He met Al out there on the small dirt road without anything to show for his own searching. Al didn't look to have been any more fruitful in his search for food or a place to stay, though. "Any luck?" He asked hopefully, not really expect anything. Al wasn't carrying any bags except for Ed's suitcase so is wasn't too shocking when the next that thing Ed heard from Al was an apology.

"No, I'm sorry, Brother."

"It's fine. Don't worry. One night in a makeshift hut in the woods won't be a problem." Ed's stomach growled as if to remind him of what he should be focusing on. "And I can go a night without dinner." His stomach wanted to disagree. It wanted to verbally disagree.

"Again, I'm sorry." Al sighed and shook his head. "I was hoping that they would sell me something because I didn't work for the military. At least something for you to eat."

Ed shook his head. "They really don't like me. Well, the don't like the military and that means we probably won't have the nicest stay here. It's not like this is anything new."

Al sighed again, looking up at the darkening sky. "It's getting kind of late. I guess we should transmute a shelter of some sort soon. It looks like it could rain."

"It won't. My stumps aren't aching like they would be. It's just cloudy," Ed replied while stretching. It was sort of handy having a warning on the weather, but at the same time, it was not really worth it. The constant ache grove him nuts.

"I guess that's good. I wouldn't want you to be in pain, and I doubt they would let us buy any painkillers here, either." Al and Ed both started making their way towards the forest. That would be the best place to set up camp. There would be plenty of firewood and materials for a shelter if Ed didn't just make one out of the ground.

Al's body gave off he impression that he was actually disappointed in this place and the people who lived there. "Brother, you know, we could search the forest for food like we did on Yo-"

A blood curdling scream cut Al off. Both brothers spun in the direction the scream had came from. They were only barely out of the town by then and could easily see the happenings.

From out of the bakery that Ed had just left a little bit ago, a little child ran, screaming. She was covered in blood. It was splattered all over her bright yellow sundress. Red was all over her face and in her dirty blonde hair. She shrieked and shrieked in terror. Ed felt sickening dread at the sight and sounds. He and Al were frozen in place.

People came running from all directions. Some surrounded the little girl and some went running into the bakery.

Shouting could be heard from inside the bakery, even at this distance. People ran from inside, looking so sick. They seemed to regret going in and that was frightening.

"Brother, what's going on?" Al asked in a terrified voice. He looked to Ed who was pale and looking ill. Ed shook his head in answer to Al. He had no idea.

Ed steeled his voice and started, "Al, stay here. I'm going to go in and take a look." Ed bolted for the bakery. He heard Alphonse behind him, but when he turned to stop him, he saw that he was going to the child. Ed was relieved that his brother had thought of her. Whatever the girl had just witnessed had been horrific, and she was definitely in desperate need of someone to comfort her. Hopefully, the large amount of people around her wasn't scaring her too much. But then again, she was safe from whatever caused all that blood.

It was chilling to think about the blood. Whose was it? It had to have been from the woman he had just meet in the bakery, but how was that possible? He had just been in there. What could have happened in the short time that he had been gone?

The little girl was screaming, but there were gaps of time when she had enough air. When that happened, she would stutter on her words, trying to form something coherent.

"Ma-" Then she'd gasp and shriek. "Sh- she-" Again the girl screamed in horror. "E- e- ex- exp-" She was screaming and sobbing.

Ed made his way into the bakery, shuddering at the sight of blood splattered on the walls. The room reeked of it. The blood was spreading across the floor, pooling quickly. He felt his gut drop.

"What happened to her?" a voice asked in a low horrified whisper.

"I don't know," another answered. "I looks as if her body just..." There was chokes as the person finally broke down. "What the hell could have done this?!"

Ed slipped through as people muttered and hissed at him, telling him to let the adults handle this. Some even recognised him as the dog of the military that had come to town and glared at him as if this was his fault.

"What do you think you're doing here?!" someone hissed at him. "You don't belong here! We don't need you, _Dog_."

That was when he saw the body, or what was left of it, in its twisted way. He couldn't reply to the person in any way. He turned away. That was also when he understood why the girl was screaming and what the last thing she had tried to say was. Her mom had exploded...

Ed's stomach did a somersault, and he nearly threw up. It was a good thing he hadn't had any if those rolls because if he had they would be on the floor. "That little girl saw this happen..." His stomach rebelled and twisted dangerously. When he looked back for longer than a brief glance, he could see the way the woman's whole torso was pretty much gone. Ribs were broken and scattered. The rest of her torso was splattered on the walls and her daughter...

"Where will she stay?" Someone asked in a worried tone. Were they not terrified by this? He shivered, but Ed didn't stay to listen. The horrors of the scene before him were starting to settle in. He pushed through to get out as bile rose in his throat. The smell of iron and that image were forever seared into his memory. He stumbled out, past everyone, rushing to the bushes and vomiting into the grass underneath them. It turned out that it didn't matter if he had the rolls or not.

The girl's loud, horrific shrieks echoed in his ears as his body expelled any food or drink it had had in it. He threw up again. His body shook at the sight of what was left of that woman. It was so horrible. He couldn't move. His whole brain was occupied by those images. How did that happen? People didn't just explode for no reason! Why did that happen to her?!

_What the hell was going on?_

Ed felt a hand on his shoulder as he threw up again. His stomach cried out again. "N- ne- never... w- want to see that again."

_I can't bear it._


	2. NoctisAvem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to NoctisAvem. I appreciate the work you've done.

The little girl in the yellow sundress Al had been trying to console had long been whisked away by someone across the street. Ed hoped the girl wouldn’t be too mentally scarred but didn’t have much hope. He knew too well what it was like to lose a mother. He was trying not to think about her too much, though, or the bloody remains of her mother. It was too much like the damned creature he had given form to in the basement on that horrid day. Much like that thing they made, he couldn’t wash the phantom images from his mind. Instead, he tried to think about something else, anything else other than what he had just seen. Ed tried to focus on what was happening in front of them.

He saw that the crowd of onlookers outside the bakery continued to grow, but it was honestly smaller than he was expecting. Still, a good number of people had gathered outside. Enough that the brothers gave them a wide birth. Edward knew better than to try to approach and offer his assistance now. He’d just be shot down. With hostility already shown to them in town. He didn’t risk stirring any emotions within the townspeople. Especially now, when they were currently processing the death of one of their own. It would be better to wait and ask the police. So all he could do was stand there waiting and listen to mummers from the gathered crowd.

“Where are the police? It’s been seventeen minutes and I haven't seen hide nor hair of them,” one outraged woman asked.

“Haven’t you heard?" the lady next to her started. "The cops have set up a search party to look for those children that didn’t come home yesterday after school. Half the men in town are out looking for them too. I think they're in the east hills now," the lady finished.

“Oh no, how terrible, I had no idea. I just got back in town today. What happend?” The two women went on to speak more but the rest of their conversation was overshaded by the volume of another man speaking.

“Look at those two, standing there gawking at us," a middle-aged man with a cane and a gimp leg griped. “I guess it should be reassuring the military is still as useless as they’ve ever been," he seethed. At his words, many eyes in the crowd looked towards the brothers, and none were kind.

The murmuring crowd seemed to change in temperament. “What good is the military if they can’t prevent these sorts of things from happing to us?” one overly polished woman said.

“They’re not protecting anything except their taxes," said another man.

“It’s odd that all these bad things started happing once those two showed up," one voice wondered from the crowd. It was like a cold, hard accusation. A punch to the got. With that, the crowd’s grief and negative emotions from the murder and all-around bad luck were swiftly being transformed and redirected towards the two unwelcome newcomers. And it started boiling to the point that someone in the crowd finally had enough and stepped out to approach the outsiders.

The brown-eyed, raven-haired women stepped closer to the brothers but stopped a few yards away from them. From the appearance of her work clothes, she looked to be a barmaid from the local tavern. “You two should leave now. There’s nothing you can do. Local crime is hardly any business of dogs anyway.” She spoke firmly to them, but her word didn’t hold the same amount of venom as the other villagers.

“We're not bothering anyone, lady. Were just waiting for the police.” Ed tried to reason with her as eloquently as he could. “We got questions for them, and they’ll probably want to speak to us anyway since we were nearby when everything went down.” He chose his words carefully, omitting the word murder even though that’s clearly what had happened. It wasn't common to explode like that.

The women’s toffee eyes narrowed. “Be that as it may, you’re doing yourself harm by sticking around. It would be best if you leave now while you are still able. Before this crowd becomes a mob. You won’t get a second warning.” Ed glanced back at the crowd outside the bakery, noting that many of the people had stopped talking among themselves and were glaring at them. It seemed what the women said was true. A warning they should probably take ear to. Ever observant Alphonse quickly butted in.

“Thank you for the advice, miss. Well, we'll be right on our way.” He bowed to her politely, before dragging his brother away from the square. Ed let himself begrudgingly be pulled along with Al until they were out of sight of the crowd. It seemed there was truly nothing they could do there. Except earn glares.

They moved together in tandem and silence, each thinking about what they just witnessed. Together they walked towards the other side of town, in the direction of the forest. Ed’s mind was still haunted by the images of what he saw, and the taste of bile was still strong on the back of his tongue. The body, he had never seen a human torn up in that way before. The closest thing he could compare it to was… but no, even that thing they created… this body was different it was human. To think someone else could do something like that to another person, that they were still out there somewhere moving freely. It sent chills down his spine. He glanced at his brother and noticed the small bloody handprints on his lower chest plate. They must have come from the child he was trying to console. They’d have to clean that, less it brought them any more negative attention when they walked through the rest of town.

Thinking of the girl. Al hadn’t said anything but of few words to that barmaid before they left. He wondered if the little girl in the yellow sundress had said anything to him about what happened inside the bakery. He almost didn’t want to ask. But he did anyway as they crossed a small stone bridge that led into the other half the village. “That girl, did she say anything to you about what happened in there?” the blond asked. Al’s helmet shifted to look at him with an unreadable look, before shaking back and forth.

“No, nothing I could understand. I think she was in shock.” He sounded regretful. “There was a lot of blood on her dress. I’m sure whatever happened traumatized her. He waited for another few paces before asking his brother the same question. “What about you? You ran back inside. What happened in there?”

Ed’s face must have painted an awful picture because Al suddenly started fretting over him. “Are you alright?” he stopped suddenly causing Ed to stumble on the cobblestones. “You look really pale brother; do you need to sit down for a moment?” Ed shook his head. “No, no I’m fine, it's just. Whatever happened to that lady was really bad. Her body was…” Ed made a face and paused to think a moment on how the best way to describe it without going into too much detail.

“You know how we used to help teacher and Sid at their shop, for their day job I mean?” He was referring to heavy lifting and manual labor Izumi had them do at the butcher shop. Mostly physical things such as lifting and carrying crates, sorting and arranging meats by size and type in the freezers. Regular grunt work. “It was kind of like when Sid opened up and cleaned a doe for us to put in the freezer. Only besides prepping it (bleeding, skinning, gutting, cleaning) he just made one big hole and the chest and took one or two organs out and just left it on the ground without hosing down the floor.” It wasn’t like that at all but it was somehow easier to speak about it as if it had happened to an animal and not a person.

“Oh...” his brother said.

“Yah,” Ed agreed. “It wasn’t pretty,” He said, trying not to think back on it too hard, least he be sick again. They slid into silence again after that as they neared the village edge.

\-- 12 minutes after the brothers departed the bakery square.

The detective Rivers kneeled to get a closer look at the body. Poor miss Maybell’s chest lay open and exposed for all to see. Split right down the sternum, leaving muscle, severed ribs and yellowish-white fatty breast tissue folded back like the lips of a cardboard box. Poor women was cut and peeled open like package out of the post.

It was a scene so gruesome one couldn't make themself look away from. Though the most disturbing part was that some of her internal organs seemed to be missing. There was scarlessly a way to tell how much was gone though from the amount of blood that flooded her chest cavity. He would have to wait for the corners report to learn anything more.

He stood up, careful not to step on the bloody handprints and footprints and fabric smears that littered the floor around the corpse, leaving a trial of tiny tracks bolting out the door. “How traumatizing it must have been," the inspector spoke quietly. “For a child so young stumble upon such a grizzly scene.” He had already taken the semesters statement across the way, she had ushered the child into her shop after everything that happened. He heard from her that the poor girl had come downstairs from her nap to find her mother on the floor. Tried to come to her aid and slipped in blood, only to fall face first in the open chest cavity of her deceased mother. “On her birthday no less. What tragedy to have such a joyous day stained and tainted by the tragic death of a loved one.” He shook his head in remorse for the poor girl, who’d probably never look at her birthday the same way again. Putting those dreadful thought aside he counited to look around the shop for cluses.

Moving around the rest of the crime scene, he noted the large range of blood splatter over back of the glass display cases that housed various baked goods. Next to the display was the register and a small open note pad with the sales of the day listed. Looking over the list and peering into the display case and inside the cashbox, he concluded that four of Maybell’s infamous butter rolls were missing. ‘Perhaps there had been an altercation with a customer?’ They’d have to make certain.

"Lieutenant," the inspector called out to the man standing across the shop. The tall redhead in question looked up from the polaroid pictures he’d he been taking of the crime scene. "Yes sir?" He answered. "Give me a list of our witness again and tell me who was the last to see our victim alive.” The redheaded lieutenant let his polaroid camera rest around his neck by its strap and started fumbled with his pockets for his note pad and pen. From the other side of the display case, the inspector waited. The redhead finally took out the note pad given to him by the regent officer that had been first to the scene. He flipped through the notes calling out the names of the nearby store owners that had rushed to help with the daughter of the victim and everyone who had been reported as being seen in the crowd out front. He stopped suddenly at one page and then flipping back to the previous page, “Hold on, some of the pages were stuck together. There’s still more here.” Slightly embarrassed at the fumble, he parted the stuck pages and continued to read the information about their missing witness out loud.

“There’s one more witness it seems. Not much on him other than the other witness claim he was military, but this doesn’t make any sense. Borras wrote here that the last person seen entering the bakery was a boy no older then eleven? That can’t be right, perhaps old Boris’s meant to write seventeen?” The man speculated, looking lost.

At this the Captain looked suddenly alert and approached the redhead to take a look at the missing entry himself. “Hmmm.. perhaps not. If the last person to see Miss Maybell alive is just as Boris noted that I do believe this “boy” is not only a military dog but also an alchemist.” The inspector handed back the notes to the lieutenant and started making his way for the door of the shop. The clean-up crew had just arrived.

“A State Alchemist, sir?” The redhead parroted, looking stricken and slightly concerned. 

“Yes, Robinson, a State Alchemist. The Fullmetal alchemist if I’m not mistaken. And I think it's time we visit this lad, seeing as how he never found the time to leave his statement,” he said while ominously looking out the front to watch the men out front started unloaded the truck with everything they need to transport the body.

\---

Edward’s stupid stumps were right. It didn’t rain that evening. But, boy, did the wind make up for it. They had managed to find a small abandoned shack in the woods. It was old, creepy, and had dust and questionable stains everywhere, but most things looked to be in working order strangely enough. They could tell it had not been lived in for a while due to the layer of thick dust. Only disturbed by whatever wildlife managed to find its way inside. The found out pretty fast that that was indeed the case, as nature seemed to already started its work on reclaiming this house for the forest. A band of racoons had officially moved into the attic, and in turn infested the only bedroom in the place through the collapsed attic crawlspace. Ed had slammed and almost broken the bedroom door when he stepped into the room to see if the bed was in any condition to be slept in. He was that wiped after the horrible day they had. He slammed to door closed however, so fast once he found seven pairs of gleaming eyes staring back at him.

At the sound of a door slamming, Al looked up. He had been bent over inspecting the obscure remains of an old creepy portrait that fallen from the walls of the hall. “What’s wrong, brother?” he asked curiously making to stand and step into the hallway to where Ed was standing with his back plastered to a bedroom door. Ed relaxed somewhat as he caught sight of him and stepped away from the door.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just- ya know how you said you thought you saw a massive cat slipping under the place before we came in?” Ed asked, with one of his thumbs pointing to the bedroom door behind him.

“Yes!” his brother responded hopefully, seemingly in the highest amount of spirts he had been in all day. Ed felt sort of bad for getting his hopes up.

“Well, I don’t think it was a cat you saw," Ed said.

Al’s mood seemed to take to take a nosedive. ‘No cats then, it must have been some kind of wild animal.’ The younger Elric thought with no little disappoint.

“It was a big ass racoon, and he had friends, lots of friends," the blond finished with a look of utter annoyance on his face. Ed’s statement was verified a moment later when a long thrilling call came from the other side of the bedroom door. Both brothers looked over at the door in time to see the door noob wriggling. The two paled, and soon grew frantic. “It’s opening the door!” Alphonse cried out. “Shit!” Ed said. “I forgot they could do that.” He rushed back to the door in time to prevent it from opening. God it had been a long time since they had to deal with these fuckers. He forgot how smart they could be.

They had been right terrorized by a band of racoons when they spent that month on the island. The weaselly bastards tore through so many of their fish and crawdad traps. And even managed to vandalize their food stash a few times. Little damn thieves and their sticky fingers, moving things around at their camp while they slept.

Ed was quickly swept out of his memory by his brother insensately tapping him on the shoulder. “Brother, your foot!” Ed looked down and shrieked. He let go of his grip on the door in surprise. There at the foot at the door. A little clawed and black padded hand had reached was reaching out affixing itself to his left pantleg. The racoon let out another thrill. Both of them yelled.

“Ghaaa! It's touching me, get it off, Al! Hurry!”

“Brother hold still! Wait don’t let go of the door! You’ll set it free!”

“Shit!” in a moment of absolute desperation Ed clapped his hands and slammed them to the wall next to the door. Blue white light flashed, and the bedroom door became fused to its frame in the wall.

Both of them were now in standing in the living room. Ed had somehow managed to get his leg free but he’d have to mend his the rip in his pants later. As for the coons, they could hear all kinds of horrible panicked animal noises coming from the bedroom. Crashing and scurrying, barking and thrashing as the band of trash pandas scampered back to their home in the attic. Even now, the brothers could hear the creatures running around in the attic above them, and somehow it was no less reassuring. “There’s not another way for them to get in here is there?” Al asked him. “I sure as hell hope not.” Ed replied. He was about to say something more when a knock on the front door was heard. They both stared at the door in confusion. The knock sounded again.

They answered the door together, finding two officers standing outside. One man had white hair and a handlebar mustache. He seemed to be the guy in charge; Ed could tell by how he held himself. He was wearing a tan coat and a pressed shirt full of cockleburs and a few small pieces of leaf debris. The man also had a tight hold of his hat in the crook of his arm, less the winds take hold of it. Besides having white hair, he still looked to be in his early forties. Behind him was a tall, lanky redhead dressed in uniform blues, he seemed much younger then the first man. Perhaps in his early twenties. His state of dress was messy too. Mud splashes stained the bottom cuffs of his pants, and shoes were more scuffed than shined. The two of them looked as if they been wandering though woods and creeks for hours. Ed's mind flashed back to the conversation he heard from earlier about a search party that had been trying to locate some missing kids. He filed that information in the back of his mind for later. Al was the first one to break the silence. "Hello officers, is there something we can help you with this evening?" He asked as polite as ever.

"Ah, yes. Excuse us for not introducing ourselves. I am Inspector Peter Rivers, and this here is Lieutenant John Robinson. We have come to ask you to come to the station with us to discuss some urgent matters. One of you I hear was the last person to see our victim alive," the inspector finished. The brothers looked at each other.

"Well shit," Ed said.

TBC…..

**Author's Note:**

> To write: 
> 
> 1- You can not take two chapters in a row unless no one else wants one. Give someone else a chance to write something.
> 
> 2- Be considerate of others. Don't kill off all of the characters so that no one else can work with them.
> 
> 3- Do anything you want as long as it can be explain either in your head or on virtual paper and it can not be a crossover!
> 
> 4- Be mindful of what might make people uncomfortable. And keep it safe for most of the readers.
> 
> 5- Please don't do romance. (Married couples like OCs are acceptable of course, but this is not meant to focus on OCs or relationships between them.) 
> 
> OCs are to make the writing smoother. Please don't go overboard or make them main characters. 
> 
> Comment to write!
> 
> (And I hope this doesn't seem too bossy or anything)
> 
> And there is no limit to the length of chapters. I would prefer it if chapters were at least one thousand words, so that some development can happen, but most of all have fun! :) :D
> 
> (When the time comes to write the chapter I will give my special email)


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